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The Raven Lord demands tributes, which appear in the forest at the center of the map. When a team collects 3 tributes, their enemies become cursed.

There are three lanes in this battleground and all of the objectives are located in a forest in between them. There are several watchtowers which overlook the main paths in the forest, the mercenary camps, and the tribute spawn points making control of them essential. There are plenty of mercenaries as well which makes the forest a critical position to control.

Tributes spawn in the forest periodically at one of several spawn points. The spawn point is determined randomly. To capture a tribute, a hero must channel on it for several seconds, during which he can be interrupted by damage or disables. Once a team collects 3 tributes, the Raven Lords curses their enemies. While cursed, the minion's health are reduced to 1 and towers cease firing, allowing a team to push against a cursed enemy with ease.

The tributes are buildings that appear randomly across the map (though at set locations) In order to capture a tribute a hero must channel on it for 6 seconds. If the hero takes any damage or moves from his/her current position the channel is interrupted, and must start channeling again or defend it until they can.

The first Tribute will activate 3 minutes into the match, following a 30-second warning. The first Tribute indicator will appear on the Minimap 30 seconds after the game begins, and subsequent indicators will appear 15 seconds after the previous Tribute has been captured.

A single or two tributes will not do anything on their own, however once a team has gathered 3 tributes (not necessarily one after another) the Raven Lord curses the opposing team, turning their minions' health to 1 and denying the towers any attack capabilities. A team does not lose tributes if the other team succeeds in bringing about the curse.

Audio and visual indicators alert players when there are 10 and 5 seconds remaining on the Raven Lord’s Curse.

(Patch December 12, 2017) Note:The first Battleground objective event will now activate 3 minutes into the match, following a 30-second warning.; The first Tribute indicator will appear on the Minimap 30 seconds after the game begins, and subsequent indicators will appear 15 seconds after the previous Tribute has been captured.

(Patch August 8, 2017) Note:Audio and visual indicators have been added to alert players when there are 10 and 5 seconds remaining on the Raven Lord’s Curse.

(Patch June 13, 2017) Note:A small shadow will no longer appear at the location where a new Tribute is about to spawn when graphics are set to Low.

(Patch April 25, 2017) Note:Received a number of minor layout improvements in order to alleviate certain areas that could create awkward gameplay moments.

(Patch March 14, 2017) Note:Fixed a rare issue that could fail to provide players with vision of an active Raven Lord Tribute.

(Patch December 20, 2016) Note:Attempting to gather a Tribute using a cloned Hero, such as Mirror Image or Ultimate Evolution, will no longer prevent players from gathering that Tribute.

(Patch July 12, 2016) Note:Various environmental objects have been optimized to use less processor time. These changes will benefit processor constrained systems.